Some great thoughts from Tim Keller on Evangelism in this video.
Some highlights:
- If you strictly do Evangelism, the outside world sees it as recruitment, increasing your tribe, a power grab
- You need to combine Word and Deed.
- The best way to combine Evangelism and Good Deeds is on a personal level (more difficult to do on a organizational level)
- You’re not going to love a friend without sharing the Gospel with them. And as a friend you will serve them as there is a need
- Keller’s two steps for setting up Evangelism:
- Let the other person know you go to church
- Let the other person know that your Christian faith means something to you, even in passing: “my Christian faith has really helped me here…”
- There are a lot of simple behaviors that you should be doing, that will lead in a very organic way into deeper spiritual discussion
- You should be doing the simple behaviors first:
- Loving and caring for people
- Being a person of integrity
- Letting people know that your Christian faith
- And it will just bubble up naturally
- I think most people think, I have to find out a way to get the whole gospel out in one conversation or get in a debate about Creation and Evolution. That’s not the way to go. Be simple.
- He goes on to talk about how sharing the gospel in the city is more complex and requires more skill.
HT:Â @hanskristensen